Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum announced findings of a new report that reveal public school students are getting much, much less physical education than they should be. Based on data from 100 randomly selected schools, only 4% of third graders and only 12% of fourth graders participated in daily mandated P.E. classes. Gotbaum said, "Many schools are breaking the law by not complying with state mandates, and that’s a big problem because kids are not getting......

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council may not agree on the appropriateness of cell phones in public schools, but the DoE is now handing out cell phones to a select group of students. The privately funded pilot program will give cell phones to students and reward positive behavior, such as showing up to class, behaving and doing well. In an ironic twist, the Samsung phones will not actually be allowed in class, per Mayor Bloomberg's......

Sure, the 2008 election is exciting, but hundreds of candidates are expected to run for city office next year. Of the current City Council, 36 members out of 51 are up for reelection or getting the boot due to term limits. Former Bloomberg aide William Cunningham advised the Sun, "Put on your helmets and put on your seat belts: It's going to be like a demolition derby." It'll be a donation derby as candidates who......

Governor Spitzer may have identified himself as a steamroller in his attempts to accomplish certain executive tasks, but he's got nothing on the former federal prosecutor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. The NY Times has a colorful profile of the the former Mayor as a man who used his offices as bludgeons, crushing anyone who crossed him. When a chauffeur called into the Mayor's weekly radio show in 1997, saying that the cops had established......

Mayor Bloomberg's announcement that he would reduce the number of parking permits for civil servants by 20% has annoyed yet another group. Joining police officers, fire fighters, and other emergency workers are teachers. Teachers union president Randi Weingarten sent Mayor Bloomberg a letter to call the permit limits"deeply disturbing." Weingarten complains that teachers actually have too few permits. United Federation of Teachers vice-president Michael Mulgrew told the Sun that teachers end up making "informal deals"......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: multiple manhole fires on Marcy Ave. in Brooklyn, a shooting on Gunhill Rd. in the Bronx, and a stabbing on 7th Ave. in Manhattan. The NYTimes examines the ground beneath our feet and finds out where the city's asphalt comes from and how it's produced. The lives, loves, and world of Second Lifers, where people inhabit a virtual world of their and others' making. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, who......

The Maricopa County medical examiner found that the death of a New Yorker in police custody at the Phoenix airport was an accident. Carol Gotbaum, who was flying from NYC to Tucson with a stopover in Phoenix, died of "asphyxia by hanging" on September 28. Gotbaum, stepdaughter-in-law of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, had been traveling alone to check into alcohol rehabilitation. When she missed her connection to Tucson, she became upset and disruptive, and......

Witnesses told police that Carol Gotbaum was "teary" during her flight from New York to Phoenix, according to new documents released by the Phoenix Police Department. Another witness says the mother of three, who was traveling to Tucson for alcohol rehabilitation, may have also ordered an alcoholic drink during the flight. Carol Gotbaum became upset when she missed her connection to Tucson, yelling and throwing things, and the Phoenix police took her into custody. She......

As more cases of staph infections are being reported (a Newark public school security guard has MRSA, leading the school to be disinfected), parents are growing increasingly concerned about how schools are responding to the epidemic. Yesterday, school officials held a meeting at IS 211 in Brooklyn, the school Omar Rivera Jr. attended before dying from MRSA two weeks ago, to explain how it is dealing with the potentially deadly disease. The Post reports the......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave a speech at an Association for a Better New York event yesterday that seemed to be a preview into Quinn's 2009 mayoral campaign. According to CityRoom, the speech "seemed to be steered toward showing Ms. Quinn to be a responsible, knowledgeable fiscal heavyweight who would be an effective watchdog of New York City’s financial health." Quinn presented five ideas, including stronger oversight of independent agencies like the NYC Transit......

The family of Carol Gotbaum, the New Yorker who died at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport on September 28, held a funeral for the mother of three at Congregation Rodeph Sholom yesterday. Her husband Noah, son of labor leader Victor Gotbaum and stepson of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, mourned his wife, saying, "Carol, you were an angel, and everyone knew it. My girl was born with the most beautiful smile on her face. It put......

The Daily News and NY Times both look at the life of Carol Anne Gotbaum, the New Yorker who died while in police custody at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport over a week ago. She is portrayed as a vibrant woman and loving mother to three children who had become depressed in recent years. On Friday, September 28, Gotbaum missed a connection to Tucson (where she would check into alcohol rehabilitation) and become very upset......

The lawyer for the family of Carol Anne Gotbaum, the New York resident who died while in police custody at the Phoenix airport last Friday, continued to blast the Maricopa County medical examiner's office as well as question police tactics. Gotbaum, who was traveling to Tucson for alcohol rehabilitation, had become agitated when she missed the flight. Since they were unable to calm her, police arrested her and left her handcuffed to a bench in......

A Phoenix medical examiner's autopsy conducted on the body of New York resident Carol Anne Gotbaum was inconclusive. Gotbaum died in police custody at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport on Friday, after she became upset when she missed a connection to Tucson, where she was planning on checking into the Cottonwood de Tucson alcohol rehabilitation center. Police suggested that she died while struggling to break free of her handcuffs; her family, which includes stepmother-in-law Public Advocate......

The family of Carol Ann Gotbaum wants answers about the 45-year-old Manhattan resident's death while in police custody at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport last Friday. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, who was Gotbaum's stepmother-in-law, said, "We are not jumping to any conclusions, but the circumstances surrounding Carol's death appear to be unusual enough to raise serious questions and warrant a thorough investigation." The mother of three was scheduled for a connection to Tucson, where she was......

The family of Manhattan resident who died while in police custody at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Friday night is awaiting more details about her death. US Airways and airport police say that Carol Anne Gotbaum, who was married to the stepson of NYC Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, had been acting irately and would not calm down, so she was handcuffed and left in an airport holding cell. Police say they checked on her every 15......

Manhattan resident Carol Ann Gotbaum, who is married to the stepson of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, died in a Phoenix airport holding cell while in police custody. Phoenix authorities believe she may have died while trying to get out of her handcuffs. Carol Ann Gotbaum, 45, was trying to board a flight to Tucson at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, but arrived too late and was booked on another flight. A US Airways spokesman, Derek......

Mayor Bloomberg may be staunchly denying that he's running for president next year, but given the love New Yorkers seem to have for him, you can't blame him for high hopes. The latest Quinnipiac Poll says Bloomberg's approval rating is at 70%. This is down from his possible all-time approval ratings high of 75% at the start of the year, but it's still very high (back in 2003, his approval rating was around 33%). The......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Sutter Ave. in Brooklyn, a water rescue off the Breezy Point Jetty in Queens, and a missing child on East 178th St. in the Bronx. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum is upset that Coney Island native and Knicks star Stephon Marbury donated 3,000 pairs of his new Starbury basketball shoes to male high school basketball teams, while ignoring the female players. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the......

Lawmakers are looking to toughen laws around tinted windows on automobiles. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum pointed out that police officer Russel Timoshenko was fatally shot when he approached a stolen SUV with tinted windows. And current State Senator Eric Adams (a retired police captain and a founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care) summed it up, "The criminal element does not use tinted windows to protect themselves from dangerous UV rays. They use......

Mayor Bloomberg has been an independent all of a couple days, but there is tons of ink being devoted to his chances. The most interesting story is from the NY Sun, which offers various scenarios where Bloomberg could win the 2008 presidential election (not that he wants to run for president). For instance, he'd need the Northeast, West Coast, Florida, and Heartland states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, etc. And if "extreme" candidates run in......

The Department of Education officials are smiling and parents are seething: Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone ruled that the DOE could continue to ban cell phones. The DOE has claimed that cell phones are disruptive and students use them to cheat, while students and parents feel the phones are necessary for safety purposes. The DOE's cell phone ban prompted eight parents to sue the city, and, per the AP, calling the ban......

Though Rudy Giuliani may have been thrilled to have raised $15 million toward his presidential campaign during the first quarter, it turned out to be quite a bit less than the total haul by Republican rival Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor raised a whopping $23 million. However, Giuliani's team says that the former mayor raised $10 million in March alone, and Rudy himself said, "If I could do it all over again, I would......

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that New Yorkers still really like Mayor Bloomberg. While his approval rating slipped 2 points since the beginning of the year (from 75 to 73), Bloomberg can claim that the citizens of New York like him as a mayor more than they like Rudy Giuliani's reign as Hizzoner. Forty-six percent liked Bloomberg more than Giuliani; 34% felt they were the same, while 16% thought Giuliani was better. All the......

Mayor Bloomberg has been leading the city for over five years, but the way he handles dealing with the public during crises - no matter how big or how small - remains curious. As some people think he should have stayed in NYC after Wednesday's brutal Bronx fire - and not gone to Miami, some people ascribe his cool "delegate issues to underlings" and "move onto the next thing" attitude to his business management......

In the imbroglio known as Mid-Year School Bus Re-Routing Hell, Mayor Bloomberg has recently half-heartedly apologized to inconveniencing thousands of children and parents (let's not even touch educators who have to deal with students who are arriving 45 minutes late), claiming the silver lining is savings for the Department of Education. But clearly Bloomberg's tolerance for school bus related talk is wearing thin, given his response to a reporter's question that started "The public advocate......

The chaos caused by mid-year school bus route changes that included things like 5 year old being told to take public buses and kids being picked up after school begins seems to have settled down. The Department of Education apologized for the umpteenth time and even Mayor Bloomberg admitted that the changes didn't go very well (he did emphasize the savings were worth it). Of course, it's questionable how much the DOE will save after......

- The goings-on at Rudy Giuliani's own company were the focus of two articles this past weekend. The Daily News wondered how his client list at Giuliani Partners will stack up to scrutiny, as there are gambling associations and polluters on it. Well, there are benefits to him being a Republican. And the NY Times looked at how Giuliani's campaigning might affect his company - it's questionable how successful the company has been. How did......

Augh! The NY Sun reports:Speculation is heating up that the Municipal Building, the soaring limestone landmark that overlooks City Hall, could be among the government real estate assets to be sold off and converted to residential buildings as municipal employees prepare to move into a new, privately managed office building planned for ground zero.Why? Because the city signed an agreement with World Trade Center developer to assume 600,000 square feet of space at Tower......

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum stepped into the hot debate about cell phones in the schools with e-mails from parents that detail why cell phones are necessary. Here are a few of the stories:One mother wrote, “I have three children in New York City public schools. As a working single mother, I need to be able to communicate with my children at any given time…Just a week ago, my daughter…was attacked by three students in her......